[London] The buzz around Brat is real and has persisted in the London restaurant grapevine for longer than many restaurants have been open in the city.
People are rushing with urgency to eat at Brat, and trust me, it is no small wonder as to why.
Brat has been the talk of the town because chef Tomos Parry, who made the move from the kitchens of Kitty Fisher’s in Mayfair, has begun fresh and new culinary performance in Shoreditch.
The restaurant was also awarded one Michelin star (2022), ranked No.78 in World’s 100 Best Restaurant (2021).
The restaurant is located above the infamous Smoking Goat Thai restaurant, up some vintage stairs that eventually reveal a modest, not imposing interior.
It serves food that expresses strong Basque influences and a classy homage to bistronomy.
A wood fire oven and grill do most of the cooking here. Meat, fish, and vegetables all prepared with notable finesse.
One can either sit at the bar that runs through the centre of the room, or at the fashionable wood finished tables spread throughout the dining area.
Note that some people may find the tables too packed, sitting too close to a stranger at the next table.
Ingredients at Brat are particularly key, more so than in most other restaurants.
There is a certain amount trust on the part of the guest required at Brat in excess, since most dishes have no explanation.
You order the protein or carbohydrate that sounds appealing and you leave the preparation up to the skilled chefs working in plain sight.
Do not mistake this simplicity for a lack of technique or ingenuity.
The skill at Brat is in the celebration of the ingredient and its flavours rather than specifically technique. What results is a glorious meal that is pure ecstasy for your palate.
On my visit, I ordered an assortment of dishes that looked and sound immensely intriguing.
First came a dish of wild rabbit, blood sausage and beans (£7.5). The rabbit, minced with parsley was sweet, tender and combined well with the savoury richness of the sausage.
The beans added welcome textural contrast and the vinaigrette that it rested in provided an exciting tang.
The Chopped Egg Salad (£5), a robust and fluffy egg salad comes on warm toast and is topped with intensely savoury bottarga or cured fish roe.
A simple dish that delivers on so many levels.
With the Clams (£8.5), whose freshness brought another element to the meal, one tasted both the sea-savouriness of the seafood with the luxury of the mint enlivened pig trotter sauce. Simply superb!
For mains, there was a gorgeous Lemon Sole (£22) and a dish of Herdwick Lamb (£18.5), both cooked to perfection.
The sole was buttery and soft, with flesh coming easily off the bone. The sauce was great to mop up with fresh bread.
The lamb, perfectly cooked, absolutely tender and juicy, was accompanied by a charred salad and sweet roast carrots. Both mains were terrific in equal measure.
And finally, dessert. While burnt cheesecake and peaches (£6) may sound odd to some, the actual product on the plate is something quite exquisite.
Fluffy, baked cheesecake arrives with its top charred black but only to add a subtle bitterness to the overall sweetness of the dish. The peaches are delicious, resting equidistantly beside a puddle of thick cream.
The kind of cooking taking place at Brat is the kind you make a special trip for.
No matter where you are in London, there are few places that serve up such incredible simplicity with such exceeding sophistication.
BRAT Restaurant
4 Redchurch St, London E1 6JL
Opening Hours: 12pm – 3pm, 5:30pm – 10:30pm (Mon – Sun)
Google Maps – Brat
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* Written by DFD’s London Food Correspondent Leander Dias SaltyCritic. Leander Dias was born and raised in Dubai, a burgeoning city with diverse food culture. Since moving to London to read for his English MA at UCL, he has utterly immersed himself in the local food scene, writing extensively about everything he eats everywhere he goes. Daniel’s Food Diary pays for food reviewed unless otherwise stated.
